How To Play

This is an explanation of the overall game for new players. For a brief overview of the rules see the concise rules reference page. For detailed information on specific Roles, Mechanisms and Interactions there are dedicated pages for those.

Werewolves is a social deduction game set in a fictional village that has been overrun by evil. Players are split into two teams - good (Village) and evil (Werewolves) who collectively form what is known as the "town" or "village". Each side has a different win condition and the game plays out over several rounds called "days" until one side meets that condition. Individual players have a role assigned to them from the pool of available roles from their team. Players will be discussing and deducing who is on which team to try and meet their own win condition.

The game is run by a player called The Moderator who keeps information about everybody's team, the specific role they have and the state of the game. The moderator also runs each game phase and is not a participant of the game itself, with no win condition. The moderator is there to ensure fairness and to enable gameplay.

Some rules are variable and some roles modify the rules. The majority of the core aspects of the game remain the same between games and the Moderator will explain any rule or setup modifications before a game begins. The rules described here are the "default" rules before any roles or special rules modify them.

Win Conditions

To win the game each side must eliminate players.

• The evil players (wolves) must eliminate enough good players from the game so that they reach what is known as Parity - that is there is an equal number of living evil players as there are good players. During the game evil players will be pretending they are good players, to hide their identity.

• The good players (village) must eliminate all of the evil players.

Living / Dead

Players who are active in the game are "alive" and whilst alive are able to discuss, vote and use abilities. If a player is killed, whether from execution by the village or by another player killing them, they leave the game and are no longer able to interact.

When someone dies their role is not revealed and the village must try to deduce what role they could have been through discussion. This can change in some games and is one of the rules that can be modified to change the difficulty of the game - in some games the Moderator might reveal roles that have died.

Even if a player is dead, they still win with their team.

Game Phases

Each round of the game is split into two phases - day and night. During the daytime the whole group selects and votes on players they wish to "execute" - which means killing them and removing them from the game. During the night evil players will wake up and select who they wish to kill. Many of the individual roles people have will also wake up during this time and perform actions related to their role.

Daytime

During the daytime players are awake and actively discuss who they think is an evil player and share any information they might have. This phase is free discussion and anyone can talk - but you do not have to tell the truth, and in fact a large part of the game might be lying in order to conceal your identity or to catch other people in lies. The daytime is usually limited in time, but discussion takes place amongst the group.

During the day nominations take place in order to decide who should be executed that day. The village can collectively decide to execute someone, or decide not to execute anybody if they wish. The day phase has some limitations on who can be nominated and how that happens.

• Each player has one nomination they can use per day. It has to be a successful nomination (i.e leading to a trial) for it to be considered used.
• Each player can be nominated maximum twice per day. Once someone has faced a second trial without reaching the required number of votes, they are safe for that day.
• Each player can second as many nominations as they like, there is no limit to this.
• Each player can vote on as many trials as they like, there is no limit to this.

Nominations

Each player has a nomination they can use once every day. To nominate a player you simply declare to the moderator:

"I nominate <Player Name>"

Before this nomination carries it needs to be backed up by another player who offers to second that nomination. Players have no limit on how many nominations they can second. They do so by stating:

I second the nomination on <Player Name>

At this point all discussion stops and the trial begins.

The Trial

When a player has been successfully nominated they are placed "on trial". At this point the Moderator pauses the game and allows those involved in the trial to speak without interruption. With players taking a turn to speak in this order:

• The nominator states reasons for nominating this particular player. They are allowed to say anything they like, including lying, as for the reasons why they think this player should be executed.
• The second states reasons why they agreed to the nomination
• The accused gets to make their case about why they shouldn't be executed - this is their chance to convince the group that they should live. This might include claiming a role - or lying about claiming a role. Evil players will be pretending they are good players in order to avoid being executed.

After each player has spoken, without interruption from the village, a vote is taken. Everyone who is not on trial is eligible to vote and does so upon the Moderator's countdown. Each player can vote on as many trials during each day as they like, they are not limited.

If the majority (50% + 1) of eligible votes are to execute this player, they are considered to be "on the block".

Ending the day

The day does not end after one trial - numerous can take place. Other players can be nominated and new trials take place. If a subsequent trial gains more votes than a previous trial, that player is then placed on the block instead.

At the end of the day phase, the player who is on the block (has the highest number of votes) will be executed and leaves the game. If votes for two or more players are tied at the end of the day, nobody is executed.

Night

At the end of the day the Moderator will call for the village to "go to sleep" - at which point all living players (and sometimes dead players, if certain roles or rules are in play) will close their eyes.

The Moderator is responsible for running the night phase and will wake up individual players, or groups of players, to perform their roles. Players do not speak during the night and silently indicate to the moderator how they wish to perform their role. The Moderator will provide instructions on how to do this and assist the player to perform their role.

There are certain interactions between some roles that have more complexity, which you can read more about in the Interactions page which outlines common questions about how roles interact at night.

Victory

The game ends when one team reaches their win condition - this could be at the end of a day if either side meet their criteria after a player is executed, or could be at the start of the next day if the actions in the night cause a win condition to be met.

Either way at the end of the game players will win with their team, regardless of whether they are still alive or not. Dead villagers still share a village win and dead evil players share an evil win.